Another New Year

It is that time of year when traditionally some of us make grand statements about how we are going to change our lives. That has never worked for me. My ‘big’ decisions tend to creep up on me slowly. But once I make my mind up to do something I have a pretty good success rate. However I truly believe that I am even more likely to succeed if I make my decisions or my goals public. Which is one of the reasons why I have started this studio blog. So here goes!

Last summer I decided that I wanted to create a new body of work from which I would submit pieces to the European Quilt Triennial and the Fine Art Quilt Masters (Festival of Quilts) in 2015. I also decided that I would rejoin SAQA so that I could submit a piece to their ‘Concrete and Grasslands’ call for entry in 2015. This is a pretty significant step up for me but, having spent the last couple of years focusing on developing my art, it does feel like the right time. And so far I am on track. The first piece in my new series Ruins is finished and will be entered into the European Quilt Triennial in the next couple of weeks. The second and third pieces are part way through quilting. And much more importantly I have a head full of ideas for the next pieces in the series. I’ll share more about my inspiration for this series in future posts.

The other thing I want to focus on this year is social media and self promotion. In 2014 I met a goal of setting up an Etsy site to sell my hand dyed fabrics. The site looks great and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed dyeing and preparing the fabrics. But I am not selling anything. I am getting low numbers of hits but nowhere near enough. I also set up this website in 2014 and think it looks pretty good. But again I am not getting many hits. So 2015 is going to see me embrace Facebook and Pinterest. I am going to stop being a ‘lurker’ on chat sites and start contributing. All of which is definitely outside my comfort zone but then the most rewarding challenges often are!